Recent reviews by linkerError

This is an amazing, genuinely great game, but I just can't recommend it to MOST people. Now, I know what you're thinking: "My guy, you have over 100 hours in the game and you don't recommend it? Puhleeez. Clearly you like it." And I get that. But to me, me personally liking a game is not the same as a recommendation, which pertains to others... and I don't think a lot of other people will like this game.

Please read on if you think this game might hit right for you because there is a LOT to love here, but it's buried beneath layer upon layer of obfuscation, bad/non-existent tutorials/documentation and a godawful UI. If you think you can work around these issues, then I can recommend it.

No other game on the market is doing what this game is doing. In no other space game can you manage a massive fleet of trade, combat and logistics ships and ALSO jump into any one of them and start dogfighting your little heart out. And then when you're done, you can get back to managing your huge fleet of trade ships and network of stations making wares and money hand over fist. The sheer amount of features in this game is absolutely stunning. Taken as a whole, it reminds me a lot of what Star Citizen is trying to do (in a good way!).

The problem with it isn't performance or controls or even the wonky AI -- I can work around all those things. What I can't work around is the absolute pitch black opacity this game shrouds all of its fantastic mechanics in. This game is literally UNPLAYABLE without Google, YouTube and a round-the-clock staff of helpers in the game's official Discord (amazing, very helpful people btw. Great community in general) helping you through the (I am not exaggerating) hundreds of things the game does not tell you or even attempt to. Be prepared to hit show-stopping progress blocks about every hour for the first 50 hours or so of the game while the game expects you to do yet another thing it didn't explain or signpost in the UI. Making things worse, in some cases, the UI elements are actually completely mislabeled and in quite a few more, features don't work at all. Also, bugs abound. Expect to have to reload the game a lot or back out of menus and go back in, exit the game and restart it, things like that, in order to get things to work correctly. Only a handful of tutorials have worked correctly for me -- all the rest got softlocked in some way. [EDIT: As of 7.0, all the tutorials work, however over half were removed from the game entirely, including ALL in-universe tutorials. Some topics are now not even covered at all in the tutorials (like boarding). This is one step forward, one step back.] Even when the game is functioning correctly, it is often difficult to ascertain why pilots and managers behave a certain way because the UI doesn't provide any help or clarity when a unit is in an error state.

Some might defend this by saying things like, "The game has a high learning curve" but when it is required to seek outside help CONTINUOUSLY in order to progress in any meaningful way, your game is broken. It cannot function because the user simply has no earthly idea how to make it do the thing.

I'm going to continue playing this game. I've learned my way around the biggest most glaring issues and, with extensive help from the Discord community managed to get a little space empire going. That being said, I expect the average person will find it a daunting, frustrating and just plain bad experience filled with rough edges and bugs. Hence, in general, I do not recommend it except if you're okay with all of these things. If you are and you manage to surmount the initial difficulty curve (around 50-100 hours you'll finally have a grasp of what's going on), there's a gem of a game here. It's just a shame the devs decided to bury it beneath <gestures to entire product> all of this.

It's a pretty dope little game engine well suited towards 3D and 2D development, but it really shines in 2D. It's got a Node system, where everything in the game is a Node object and can be moved around in the scene like in a tree, either with code or by dragging things around in the editor. Nodes themselves have any number of editable properties in the editor and anything that can be manipulated in the editor (and then some) is manipulable in code.

Whats more, the engine allows you to create your own inherited versions of these Nodes and allows you to "export" additional properties onto them -- a hugely powerful ability. Nodes and resources can be assigned anywhere you want a specific thing at. You just add an export for any variable in your code and use the export in your code. Then in the editor, you can just drag the Node into the slot and bam -- you have a scene template. It could be an enemy, a player, a piece of loot, coins, whatever. It allows you to construct your games such that they're composed of these little custom-coded Lego bricks called Nodes and Resources. Then it lets you snap them together in their slick little IDE using a drag-and-drop interface. It's honestly pretty brilliant.

For me, making games in Godot is almost as much fun as playing games, and that's about the highest praise I can offer for the software. Aside from some strange quirks in the editor here and there (sometimes you gotta restart the IDE because the tool mode futzes with variables when you're working on tooling scripts) it's been a fantastic experience. And don't shy away from the built in scripting language either: It's simple to pick up and really fun to code with due to its elegant, low-clutter syntax and verbose/wordy coding style. I was blown away with how quickly I was able to become productive in it.

UPDATE 2/28: Server stability is steadily improving, however matchmaking/SOS beacons are still spotty and games are often plagued by connectivity issues in the evenings. Most of the issues seem to surround the friends list not updating consistently or games being reported by the server that no longer exist. Changing my review to a recommendation because the game works fine the majority of the time.

UPDATE 2/19: The servers have been capped at 450k Helldivers by the developers. They have implemented an exponential backoff, which means that it's basically up to the lottery whether or not you get in at any given moment (there is no queue, as is commonly thought). Additionally, when you do get in, matchmaking is a crap-shoot, so you might wind up playing alone.

The CEO of Arrowhead is on record on Twitter as saying you should probably save your money until the servers are fixed if you're on the fence. I concur with that assessment.

UPDATE 2/16: And just like that, the server issues disappeared. As of today, most things seem to work mostly seamlessly! And what a game it is too.

Okay, so here's the thing: The honeymoon is over after about a dozen missions. I'm not going to say I've seen everything the game has to offer, but I can definitely say, based on what's been published about the game and the way it's structured, that the general vibe won't change much over the course of the game's lifespan.

This is a session based PvE game with randomly generated missions that you can hot-drop into with your friends. Yes, it is repetitive. Yes, it is mostly running the same missions over and over. However, the systems surrounding these basics are incredibly well built out: There are well defined progression systems for you, your destroyer and your strategems. The missions themselves are insanely well paced and nearly always engaging. Live game masters keep the games and world interesting too! Plus, the entire experience, end-to-end, has a pitch-perfect presentation. It isn't going to have the longevity of something like Destiny, but for what it is -- a fun chaotic co-op romp that lasts 20-30 minutes and that you can go back to over and over.

I don't have any further reservations recommending it. I think of it something like Sea of Thieves or Deep Rock Galactic. For the price of 40 bucks, I think that's fair.

Let's keep this simple: You're here reading this review because you already know what you want.

You're looking for a well-curated place to play Quake with a minimum of fuss, updated graphics, fast servers, matchmaking and a small but active community of players to play with.

You've found it. Get fragging.

I don't have a clue why people find this game fun

Originally, this was a great campaign. I loaded it up today to find that I couldn't actually pick up weapons in a key single player sequence. Somehow. some update has broken the game since release.

I can pick nits if I like. I can point out how this is mostly just a linear run-and-gun shooter that has little to do with its immersive sim roots. I, for one, love me a good immersive sim and aren't much a fan of the direction the BioShock series took with this entry in terms of gameplay.

At the end of the day, this game is still a timeless classic. You come for the strange setting and shooty action and stay for the mind-bending story and ending -- one of the finest video game stories of all time.

Janky and strange generic low-budget feel. If that's your thing, go for it. There was nothing really for me to latch onto in this game... everything about it was meh feeling -- the story, the dialogue, the mechanics... It's a very pretty game for sure, but there is no gameplay loop to speak of. Just a bunch of random tasks packed into a video game.

Workin' in a coal mine, goin' down, down, down
Workin' in a coal mine, whoop, about to slip down
Workin' in a coal mine, goin' down, down, down
Workin' in a coal mine, whoops, about to slip down

Five o'clock in the mornin', I'm all ready up and gone
Lord I am so tired, how long can this go on

That I'm workin' in a coal mine, goin' down, down, down
Workin' in a coal mine, whoops, about to slip down
Workin' in a coal mine, goin' down, down, down
Workin' in a coal mine, whoops, about to slip down

'Cause I make all the money, hauling coal by the ton
But when Saturday goes around I'm too tired for havin' fun
(Too tired for having)

I'm just workin' in a coal mine, goin' down, down, down
Workin' in a coal mine, whoop, about to slip down
Workin' in a coal mine, goin' down, down, down
Workin' in a coal mine, whoops, about to slip down

Lord I am so tired, how long can this go on

I'm just workin' in a coal mine, goin' down, down, down
Workin' in a coal mine, whoop, about to slip down
Workin' in a coal mine, goin' down, down, down
Workin' in a coal mine, whoops, about to slip down

In a coal mine

Restored and renewed by Nightdive. Play the game like our Lord intended.